Has anyone made their own smartphone app?

[gaijintendo]

I have pottered about once or twice, but with Android exclusively.

I had some orphaned kid relatives staying one Christmas, and they just kept playing Wii U, so I got them to make a minigame for android. It worked rather well as a simulation for a real job: time constraints, bodges, immediately learning maths lessons.

https://github.com/gaijintendo/SumBrain

I also made these basically in an evening:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=info.graphrica.rotr
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.graphrica.clickr

They are nothing to be proud of, but I made them...

I also made a guitar amplifier app, but back then android was the absolute worst for audio, and probably is just approaching usable now.

If you are already programming, you can bash things out. Making things with infrastructure, and that look good though is a fine art.

Another games engine: I have enjoyed pottering with Construct. Very quick and moderately intuitive, and if purchased can target a bunch of platforms.

Now I'm off to potter with @ColinJ's Godot!

 

[ColinJ]

Making up games could be fun. I can't help but think of the old Spectrum Game Skool Daze

You could get started by doing something really simple like a Minesweeper clone?

I have gone straight into writing my own game but it won't be much more complicated than Minesweeper to code unless I add lots of (unnecessary, but fun) fancy graphics, sound effects and music.

 

[ColinJ]

Now I'm off to potter with @ColinJ's Godot!

I only found it a few weeks ago. I'm amazed at how much work has gone into it and yet it is Open Source (free!). You can do what you want with it and are not obliged to pay a penny, though donations of time (to assist the Godot project) and/or money are welcome.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Yep used Phonegap over 5 years ago now. More recently wrote a low power tracking App that does updates at a chosen interval.

 

[smutchin]

Surprised that no one's really had a bash.

I've often thought about it - I've got an idea for what I seriously believe would be a very popular app. I just haven't got round to teaching myself how to make it a reality yet. Maybe I will one day. I doubt it will ever make me rich though.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I don't care enough about phones to have written an app for one. I am working on several different apps for my desktop PC, though. Being a software engineer has its advantages.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

[QUOTE 5168152, member: 259"]If you know what you want to do, programming is easy.[/QUOTE]
Anyone can write code with a bit of learning and practice, but writing good code is more than that. It needs to be several things: readable, maintainable, efficient, etc. If you don't pay attention to these things, you just end up with a mess.

 

[BoldonLad]

Anyone can write code with a bit of learning and practice, but writing good code is more than that. It needs to be several things: readable, maintainable, efficient, etc. If you don't pay attention to these things, you just end up with a mess.

Indeed, seen some messes in my working life!

 

[Inertia]

I have a couple of remote control apps for software such as winamp, windows media player, etc. which let my press play and pause, skip back and forth using my phone instead getting up and pushing the mouse... they're handy, but have buttons i never use whilst lack some handy functions. All these apps do is replicate keyboard shortcuts under a nice skin, and having fiddled with winamp skins and websites, figured the pc remote phone apps might not be much different.

Then i found a remote app which has a customisable feature which meant i needn't learn to build my own app from scratch... but that feature is only on the full-paid version... at which point i started a tread titled "Why can't i buy any phone apps?" and after a week of fruitless fiddling and faffing, it turned out that my phone is too old to do anything fancy, including buying apps... so gave up on the idea.

Making up games could be fun. I can't help but think of the old Spectrum Game Skool Daze

Loved that game, though it was bloody difficult

Its out for android, if you ever do upgrade your phone

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.involutionteam.skooldaze&hl=en_GB